Rubio on a possible meeting with Russia after negotiations with Ukraine: we will have to communicate with the Russians to assess positions

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated the need for further negotiations with Russia to assess the positions of the parties, "how far we are from the end of this conflict, this war." He said this to reporters on the way to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, where a meeting of the U.S. delegation with the Ukrainian delegation is scheduled for March 11, reports UNN.

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"At some point, this has to happen, right? I mean, without – we will have to communicate with the Russians to understand their positions, and only then can we assess how far we are from the end of this conflict, this war. Only then can we evaluate it. We need to understand what the real position of the Ukrainians is, how far they can go; where the Russians are, how far they can go. And then we need to see how far apart that is. And it could actually – I hope it could be easier than we think, but it could be harder than anyone imagines," Rubio said in response to a question about whether there would be a meeting with the Russians after this meeting or if it is ad hoc, depending on the success achieved.

In response to a question about whether there would be interaction with the Russians during the visit to Saudi Arabia "while you are there," Rubio pointed out: "Well, not while we are there." "I mean, there will probably be some – at some point in an attempt to interact with them. And we have interacted with them on the diplomatic front, just our embassies and the status of our respective missions. But at some point soon, obviously, we will have to go back and establish a process by which we can determine what Russia's positions are on this, and see how far apart we are. But we haven't done that yet," the U.S. Secretary of State noted.

The statements were made ahead of the meeting of the U.S. delegation with the Ukrainian delegation on March 11 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.